A Closer Look at Tim Walz’ and His Wife Gwen’s Interests and Style

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ choice of Tim Walz as a running mate has turned the spotlight on the Minnesota governor and his wife Gwen.

First elected governor in 2018, he has supported protecting reproductive rights, strengthening voter rights, clean electricity, universal free school meals for students, cutting taxes for the middle class and expanding paid leave for workers. The former six-term congressman had served on U.S. House committees for agriculture, the armed services and veterans’ affairs, as well as the Congressional Executive Commission on China.

The 60-year-old Nebraskan is the son of a public administrator and community activist. His 24 years in the Army National Guard included overseeing a battalion in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He retired from the National Guard in 2005. As an undergrad at Chadron State College, Walz had spent a year teaching in a high school in China, as part of the first government-sanctioned group of American educators to teach there that was set up through a Harvard University program.

Walz’ small-town roots were beyond that having grown up in Butte, Neb., when the population topped off at 326. After returning to the U.S. from China, he met his future wife when they were starting out as teachers in Alliance, Neb. The pair married in 1994 and two years later moved to Mankato, Minn., to get jobs in the same community. Tim Walz taught high school social studies and coached football, taking one team to a state victory. The husband and wife set up an annual trip to China for their students that ran nearly every year through 2003.

In 2006, Walz decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota’s 1^st Congressional District and won the first of what would be six terms. His father-in-law Val Whipple once compared his first congressional run as being like “’Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ a small-town guy who wanted to prove himself. He was a teacher from Mankato who wanted to serve on Capitol Hill. He surprised people with his ambition.”

Before he officially got the nod as the vice president nominee, some knew of Walz not by sight, but by his description of former President Donald Trump as “weird.” Harris picked up on the term in campaign appearances and “weird” went viral.  His middle-of-the-road style has consisted of slightly ill-fitting business suits and more worn-in pieces like jeans and casual jackets.  

His wife is said to be a close adviser and has exercised her interest in education and other issues. The couple have two children — Gen Z daughter Hope and high schooler Gus. The couple’s fashion sense appears to be business casual. Tim Walz has often been photographed in a dark suit with a white shirt and a blue, brick-colored, gray or gold tie. For last year’s gubernatorial inauguration, Walz sported a navy suit, and his wife opted for a monochromatic royal blue one with a double strand of pearls. Last fall for a visit to Dutch Creeks Farms in southeast Minnesota with President Joe Biden, Walz turned up in a field jacket, a black turtleneck and baseball hat imprinted with “Minnesota Grown.” He has also shown his Midwestern roots by opting for jeans and a red and black lumberjack-style jacket.

In addition to pantsuits like a black one with white piping, Gwen Walz also favors non-coordinated jackets and slacks. She has worn such combinations as a periwinkle blue pantsuit with a light blue crewneck top, a rose-colored dress with fluted sleeves and a multicolored striped border with black tights, and a black blouse and pants with a hot pink nubby wool jacket with gold buttons. More casual combinations have been a red plaid knotted wool scarf with a navy jacket and red sweater. Her layered highlighted hair is similar to former first lady Hillary Clinton’s coif.

A nearly lifelong Minnesotan, Gwen Walz first got a glimpse of the teaching life via parents who were educators and later small business owners. Her father Val Whipple worked a physical education teacher for a dual-school, as well as a coach. And her mother, Lynn, served as the community education director for a school district.

Just as Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s wife Usha has a professional track record as an attorney, Gwen Walz has a proven one in education. After earning degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter and Minnesota State University in Mankato, she started out as an English teacher in western Nebraska, where she first connected with Tim.

In the nearly decades that followed, her résumé includes work in public, alternative and migrant schools. She has taught the incarcerated, advocated for criminal justice reform and supported the LGBTQ movement. Walz had signed up as a board member for the Special Olympics USA Games, which will be held in Minnesota in 2026. She has reportedly argued that the Department of Education needs to collaborate with school districts more and focus less on top-down regulatory compliance. Gwen Walz is said to be one of her husband’s closest advisers. As first lady of Minnesota, she was the first to have an office in the Capitol. In an interview with her mother’s alma mater Augsburg University, Gwen Walz once said, “My first question to myself and others is always, ‘Whom do we serve?’”

The fact that Lynn Whipple attended a one-room schoolhouse as a youngster and went on to become the first in her family to graduate from high school resonated with her daughter. After Whipple’s brother died in a farm accident, Whipple cut short a postgraduate teaching post in Hawaii and returned to Minnesota to teach. Given that, Walz has spoken about how the educational attainment of mothers affects that of their children. She said in the aforementioned interview, “My mom always used to say, ’Do the work that is in front of you.’ and as a child, I thought she meant the dishes.’”

Walz, who was at that time acting as a fellow at Augsburg’s Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship, added, “Here, I have an opportunity to do that work alongside leaders who aren’t afraid to take on difficult conversations and opportunities.”

Harris and Walz are expected to hold their first joint rally Tuesday afternoon in Philadelphia.